A resource for organizing and presenting Conferences and Symposiums in an academic environment or associations.

09/18/2013

Breaking the Ice with Comics and Captions

A comics aficionado recently posted an idea for a party game that could make your next ‘ice breaker” event a gag riot.

Torsten Adair of Comics Beat created rules for “Comics and Captions” in which single panel comics (those comics using a single frame) without word balloons are separated from their actual captions. Each player is given a “hand” of captions andthe goal is to find the funniest substitute caption for the displayed comic artwork.

Riffing on this idea consider giving each attendee one or two captions (perhaps on their ticket to get into the event) and have unrelated cartoons spread about the room – near the bar, near the food, near the sponsor’s exhibits, etc. Conversations and introductions will flow as attendees flow through the room to see results of their captions with the various cartoons. Those with particularly good pairings of cartoon and caption should be encouraged to share their results on the event’s social media platform such as Twitter or Facebook.

Interesting fact is that the game was inspired by a real life incident that occurred 1983 in which the Dayton Daily News accidently switched the captions of Dennis the Menace and The Far Side. The mistake was repeated again a few days later.